Many people who would enjoy recreational boating do not have storage or transportation facilities for standard sized boats. Additionally, many larger recreational boats do not have storage space for dinghies. Existing portable folding boats are expensive to manufacture, difficult to assemble, do not have seats and/or are not small enough to be transported in the average sized automobile. There are no folding portable boats that have seat board that erect automatically on unfolding the boat.
For example, the portable boat disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,594, is difficult to fold for storage and to unfold and prepare for use because it requires manual assembly and disassembly of the seats and transom. The portable boat disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,597 is complex and expensive to manufacture. The portable boat disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,035 requires removal of supporting plates to fold the boat and installation of the supporting plates to hold the boat open for use. Additionally, that boat is not small enough in its folded position to fit in an automobile. Finally, none of the above-mentioned portable boats is made of a floatation material. Thus, existing portable boats are subject to holing and swamping.
There is a need for a portable boat that is inexpensive to manufacture, that can be transported in an average sized automobile, that is made of a floatation material, that can be stored in minimal space, and that assembles easily.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a folding portable boat that is simple to fold for storage and to unfold for use, that is inexpensive to manufacture and that can fit in the average size automobile.
It is a another object of the invention to provide a folding portable boat with seat boards that erect automatically when the boat is unfolded and collapse automatically when the boat is folded for storage.
It is another object of the invention to provide a folding portable boat made of a floatation material so that it is not subject to holing or swamping and is self-bailing.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a folding portable boat with a folding transom to which an optional motor or rudder can be attached. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a transom that is able to resist breaking by deflecting forward or backward when force is transmitted to the transom in either direction through force exerted on a motor or a rudder and that returns to an approximately vertical position when the force is removed.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a folding portable boat that has an attachable and detachable centerboard, rudder and mast so the boat can serve as a sail boat.
The foregoing specific objects of the present invention are illustrative of those that can be achieved by the invention and are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting of the possible advantages which can be realized. These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description herein or can be learned from practicing the invention as described herein or as modified in view of any variations which may be apparent to those skilled in the art.